KEY POINTS:
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed yesterday to build a "beautiful future" together after the first visit by a Chinese leader to Japan in seven years.
But the shadow of Japan's record during World War II cast a shadow over efforts by the two Asian leaders to mend relations.
This visit is all about breaking the ice in relations between the two Asian powers, one the established regional titan and the other a new rising force in global politics.
To go by the language, it looked like the start of a beautiful friendship, but people remain wary about the long-term prospects for Sino-Japanese relations.
Wen, who stated Japan must oppose independence for Taiwan, said he wanted a "true ice-melting trip" to build on Abe's successful visit to Beijing last October. But in China, there was no doubt where the burden of responsibility for mending ties lay.
"Melting ice needs more warmth from Japan," said the People's Daily.
Chinese students have taken to the streets and smashed windows in Tokyo's mission to Beijing over what they see as Japan's failure to say sorry for the war.
For the time being, everything in the garden is sprouting cherry blossoms. The message from yesterday's banquet was at pains to emphasise the close cultural links between the two neighbours and their shared history, rather than dwell on the bitter historical debates.
"In today's meeting with Premier Wen, we were able to agree to push forward many specific points of co-operation towards building a mutually beneficial strategic relationship," Abe said in a jovial speech.
China has found it far easier to deal with Japan since Abe's appointment and this visit has been called the "ice-breaker" in relations between Beijing and Tokyo. Sino-Japanese relations bordered on hostile under Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, who refused to halt visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine. At that shrine, Japanese war criminals are honoured alongside the war dead, something the Chinese have long resented and seen as a symbol of Japan's failure to atone for its militarist past.
"China-Japan ties are at a crucial point of inheriting the past and opening up the future," Wen said. "How the ties develop will have an important effect on the future of our two nations and Asia."
In a joint statement issued after their talks, China and Japan agreed to confront history and look ahead to open the path for a "beautiful future" in bilateral relations, and to work together to build a mutually beneficial strategic relationship.
Despite signs of warming relations, the Chinese appear to have chosen, for the time being at least, to ignore the glaring issue of Abe's remarkable efforts last month to play down Japan's participation in wartime sex slavery. In comments which seemed to contradict a 1993 acknowledgment of complicity and an apology to 200,000 so-called "comfort women" from various parts of Asia who were forced into Japanese Army brothels, Abe said the actual kidnapping was committed not by the Japanese Army but by private contractors.
Wen urged Tokyo to live up to apologies for wartime brutality but has been careful not to let its anger spill over into matters economic, as it needs Japan's market and its investment to keep the economy simmering at its current level. If you factor in Hong Kong, China is Japan's biggest trade partner with total trade adding up to around 1.83 trillion yuan ($326 billion), overtaking the United States.
The two countries agreed to strengthen co-operation on energy and environmental protection, and said they would hold their first high-level economic dialogue in Beijing by the end of the year. A major bone of contention has been the development of oil and gas fields in disputed waters in the East China Sea. On this issue they pledged to speed up talks.
Japan offered to use new equipment to speed up the process of disposing of chemical weapons abandoned by its Army during World War II, a proposal welcomed by China.
While the atmosphere was one of harmony, the shadow of Yasukuni hung over the banquet. Abe paid his respects at the shrine before taking office but has pointedly refused to say whether he will follow Koizumi and visit as Prime Minister, despite repeated urging by China not to do so.
- INDEPENDENT
Can old foes sort out their differences?
Why are we asking this now?
When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's plane touched down on Japanese soil this week it was the first time in seven years that a senior leader from Beijing had made an official visit to Japan. China is the rising power in Asia, while Japan remains Asia's heavyweight. For stability to reign in the region, both need to be friends.
Why are the Chinese so upset?
China fervently believes that Japan has not said sorry, at least not properly, for its brutal occupation in 1931. Visits by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo, where a number of war criminals are honoured among the war dead, combined with a revisionist approach to Japanese atrocities during World War II in certain right-wing history books, are like salt rubbed in a wound.
What's the charge sheet?
Japan's record in World War II is not a glorious one. Japan attacked Shenyang, then known as Mukden, in 1931, and established a puppet state in Manchuria the next year. That was followed in 1937 by a brutal invasion and occupation of much of China that only ended with Japan's defeat in 1945. Many Chinese people insist Tokyo has never shown adequate contrition for atrocities carried out during the occupation, including the "Rape of Nanking" in 1937, when the Chinese say Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what is now known as Nanjing. Tokyo says the figure was far lower. The Chinese also want the Japanese to apologise for a germ warfare centre operation called Unit 731. At least 3000 people, including Chinese civilians, Russians, Mongolians and Koreans, were killed in germ warfare experiments at the facility between 1939 and 1945, according to Chinese figures. Another 200,000 Chinese were killed by biological weapons produced by Unit 731.
Is it just a matter of history?
Some analysts, and Japanese conservatives, believe China is playing a game, seeking to distract from more pressing issues at home - such as the widening wealth gap, rural disquiet over land grabs and corruption - by focusing on Japan as the enemy. There is no doubt that anti-Japanese sentiment is part of a broader nationalist agenda. Then again, the Japanese seem unable to avoid treading on Chinese (and Korean, and Philippine and other Asian) sensitivities about their behaviour during the war. Shinzo Abe, Japan's Prime Minster, last month tried to play down Japan's participation in wartime sex slavery, seeming to contradict a 1993 acknowledgment of complicity and an apology to 200,000 so-called "comfort women" from various parts of Asia who were forced into Japanese Army brothels. Abe said the actual kidnapping was committed not by the Japanese Army but by private contractors.
What have the talks produced so far?
In a joint statement issued after their talks, China and Japan agreed to confront history and look ahead to open the path for a "beautiful future" in bilateral relations, and to work together to build a mutually beneficial strategic relationship. The language was extremely positive.
Why won't the Japanese apologise?
Japanese courts insist any wartime compensation issues were resolved by treaties after the war. Many important voices in Japan dispute China's claims about issues such as the Rape of Nanking. An Allied war tribunal after World War II put the number of civilians killed at about 142,000, while some conservative Japanese scholars and politicians say no massacre occurred. Koizumi, who was Prime Minister from 2001 until last year, made annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine while in office, leading Beijing to protest and stop bilateral summits. But he always insisted that his visits were about honouring the war dead, and promising that Japan would never go to war again.
Is this meeting a chance to put this behind them?
It appears the "ice-break" visit by Wen was a success. But this will not be an easy journey to warmer relations. Abe paid his respects at the shrine before taking office in September 2006, but has refused to say whether he will follow Koizumi and visit, despite China urging him not to do so.
- INDEPENDENT
